Next: Google Selling Ads for DirecTV
Another scoop via VentureBeat:
VentureBeat is hearing that Google is negotiating an advertising deal with DirecTV, the nation’s largest satellite broadcast service with 16 million subscribers.
Dish, the nation’s second largest satellite TV company, announced a deal with Google last week. (VentureBeat was first to report the Dish deal a month ago).
This is just the latest move by Google to sew up the entire advertising world. Google is pushing into newspapers, magazines, radio, cable and now satellite.
The DirecTV deal is taking more time than Dish’s to close because DirectTV is managing the ownership change announced last last year (when News Corp said it would sell its ownership stake to Liberty). More details on DirecTV here. The deal with Google will go through eventually, says a source who wants to remain anonymous. [Update: Google says “no comment,” and DirecTV says: “We are always looking for ways to increase our ad sales revenue but we have nothing to comment regarding any new partnerships.”]
Here’s our blog post + comments on the Google deal with Dish Network.
If you think about it, a Google deal with DirecTV would give advertisers reach into more than 25% of U.S. TV households. Honk the horn on Madison Avenue like some truck is double-parked and you can’t get through: Google is a player in TV advertising. Yes, the household count is greater than Comcast on paper, but how effective will it be? Here’s a clue: interactivity. EchoStar and DirecTV have national interactive TV advertising capabilities in place and are actively working with advertisers to deploy them — especially automotive and financials. Stay tuned.
